First Bengali film festival in London from 18 May

MUMBAI: For the first time ever, a three-day Bengali film festival titled Pratidin Probash Parboni Film Festival has been organised in London from 18 to 20 May.

The festival has been organised to give the expatriate Bengalis a fair idea about the contemporary changes, turns and twists in the Bengali film industry, which is on a resurgent phase. The festival will mark the world premiere of debutante director Partho Sen’s Balukabela.Com.

The 3 day film festival will feature finest array of contemporary Bengali cinema. Films that would be featured in the festival are Egaro on 18 May, Balukabela.com, Aparajita Tumi and Elar Char Adhyayall on 19 May, Royal Bengal Rahasya, Bhooter Bhobishyat and Nobel Chor on 20 May.

The event will have the presence of names like Paoli Dam, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Swastika Mukherjee, Locket Chatterjee, Rudranil Ghosh and Anirudhya Roy Chowdhury.

"Next year we have plans to make it more elaborate, including the mainstream movies, which are also assuming a new glossy look with shots in foreign locales. There is a sizeable Bengali population about 250000 in UK spread over places like Edinnburgh, Glasgow, Bermingham and next year we would shuffle the film screenings at different venues to reach everybody," said Sayantan Das, one of the organisers.

The film festival has been sponsored by Universal Success Enterprises (USE), is powered by Camellia Group and the TV partner is Channel 10.